Works (Vol 4) - Newton - III - Sermon III (The shaking of the heavens and the earth)

Required reading
The Works (Vol 4) of John Newton (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Sermon III (The shaking of the heavens and the earth).

My summary
This week's sermon is on 'For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;  And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts. (Hag 2:6-7)'

From the text, Newton asks us to consider:
(i) a character of Messiah (the desire of all nations);
(ii) the effects of his appearance (shaking the heavens and the earth);
(iii) his filling the house with glory.

What grabbed me
I liked Newton's appeal to unbelievers at the end of the sermon: 'But, on the other hand, if you trust in yourself that you are righteous and good, at least comparatively so; if your attachment to the business or the pleasure of the world engrosses your thoughts and application, so that you have no leisure to attend to the record which God has given of his Son, or no relish for the subject, you have been hitherto guilty of treating the most glorious display of the wisdom and goodness of God with contempt. Many persons thus employed and thus disposed, bear respectable characters in civil life, from which I do not wish to detract. But, however amiable you may be in the judgment of your fellow-creatures, you are a sinner in the sight of God, and will be treated by him as an enemy to his government and glory, if you finally persist in a rejection of his Gospel. The great point which will determine your state for eternity, will be this. What think you of Christ? For it is written, 'If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.' He must and will fall under the curse and condemnation of the law, and be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power. To- day, therefore, while it is called to-day, (for to-morrow is not ours,) may you hear his voice, and flee for refuge to the hope set before you.'

Yes indeed, the greatest question we can be asked in this life is 'What do we think of Christ?'

Next week's reading
Read Sermon IV (The Lord coming to his temple).

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.